Origo Kids 3D Printer

Origo is an FDM extruder-type 3D printer, designed especially for kids. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers can make various small objects out of a thin stream of partially molten ABS plastic

Origo was developed by two experienced 3D printing experts Joris Peels and Artur Tchoukanov. Peels was the community manager for i.materialise and Shapeways. They designed the Origo to have a minimum of moving parts and a simple UI using 3DTin as a design platform. 3DTin is a very friendly piece of 3D software that enables users to create 3D objects from basic building blocks. It is not as powerful as most 3D programs, but its simplicity is more suited to children and the home printing market.

Origo has a fun child-friendly design in purple plastic, with nice rounded corners, and is expected to retail at around $800

The maximum size of object that the Origo 3D printer will be able to create is about the size of a jam jar. It is relatively fast compared to some home 3D printers, with smaller objects (the size of a finger ring for instance) taking just a few minutes to print.

iModela iM-01 Kid's 3D Printer

The iModela iM-01 3D Printer, made by Japanese company Roland DG is another 3D printer aimed at kids. It costs around $1,000, and is small, designed to sit next to your PC on a desk. It plugs into your USB connection to access the associated software.

The iModela iM-01 software iM-01 comes with a cast of printable collectible figures, resembling the world famous Pokemon. The design software lets you form your own unique character set.

The printer uses a mixture of plastic, wax, balsa wood, and foam to produce a figure, which you can then paint and add detail to as you see fit.